It appears each final firm would relatively disrupt an business than merely construct one thing good. However in 2019, Kia did each. With the Telluride, Kia discovered a novel pocket within the luxurious SUV market and left each different mainstream automaker catching up.
In brief, the OG Telluride requested patrons a query: What do you really need from a luxurious SUV? Is it some flinty, half-assed crossover with the appropriate badge? How a few capacious and good-looking chariot with surpassing consolation and peerless highway manners as an alternative?
These waitlists thinned, and final yr, Kia refreshed the Telluride to gin up curiosity. The redesign included tweaked sheet metallic outdoors, a brand new digital instrument panel inside, and a pair more-rugged-looking trims, together with this one, the X-Professional.
These letters are some gobbledygook, an alphanumeric amalgam to conjure Toyota’s TRD Professional and Nissan’s Pro4X branding. We get it, Kia: That is the off-road one.
I’d say it’s about time.
Throughout a 3,000-mile highway journey with the final Telluride I had on mortgage, I obtained the SUV caught in a gap. I’d strayed right into a remote-backroad rut and wedged the Telluride as much as its stomach in freezing muddy slop.
The Kia’s locking central diff did nothing however produce one-tire fires at every finish of the truck, and people tires’ street-oriented treads filled with muck. No means out. The setting solar compelled me to hitchhike again to Fargo on dust roads, in the end leaving my spouse stranded at evening, alone, within the wilderness.
No bueno.
When the off-road tow rig arrived the following morning, the Telluride had nowhere within the entrance or rear bumper to obtain a tow hook, so the tow operator drug the Kia out sideways by a wheel, however not earlier than I’d looped a tow strap across the Telluride’s a pillars in silly desperation.
Would X-Professional have saved me?
Execs: Unequalled Quietude, Simple Highway Manners, Good-looking Exterior
Actually not. I caught the truck in mud, however the outdated Telluride provided no escape hatches both, solely the infuriating frequency of spinning tires, a soundtrack to accompany my distress. To step severely into the off-roader realm, an X-Professional Telluride ought to supply a locking diff on the rear, a switch case with low vary, one other inch of floor clearance, and the most-aggro off-road tires.
This Telluride has none of these goodies.
At the least Kia leaned into the picture its badge conjures. A bit. X-Professional gives elevated towing capability (as much as 5,500 kilos, a mere ten-percent enhance from different AWD Tellurides), a smidge extra floor clearance (0.4 inches), and a set of knobby Continental Traction Plus tires. Plus there’s a set of black 18-inch wheels and another black accents that make the Telluride look the a part of butch off-roader, even when it’s higher suited to KOAs than honest-to-goodness wheeling.
As with Tellurides throughout the trim vary, there’s one engine possibility. The lone 24-valve 3.8-liter V-6 produces 291 horses and 262 pound-feet. It pairs to a traditional eight-speed computerized. All-wheel drive comes baked into the SX Status X-Professional trim at $55,385, however cheaper Tellurides are nonetheless accessible with each all-wheel- and front-wheel-drive
Fortunately, the Telluride’s core virtues stay. These knobby Continentals don’t injury this Kia’s stellar civility. The Telluride leads the pack in suppressing highway noise, with seemingly extra sound deadening and thicker glass than its luxury-striving rivals from Japanese manufacturers. This cabin is a quiet, calming place to spend time. For me, that’s luxurious.
The engine and transmission really feel aligned with the Telluride’s core mission, to supply a civilized expertise for pilot and passengers. It’s a easy powertrain throughout; the transmission acts prefer it’s rubbing a pad of heat butter between gear modifications. Fewer than 300 horsepower and 275 pound-feet received’t leap off a spreadsheet, however the Telluride makes essentially the most of what its engine can present.
Kia’s engineers calibrated the engine’s throttle mapping to supply a pleasant little soar from a cease with these first inches of pedal journey, permitting the Telluride to dash from a cease gentle with out giving the impression you’re flogging the ‘six. Automobile and Driver reported a 6.8-second dash to 60 mph, which received’t problem established German luxo-utes, however is a lot fast for interstate on-ramps.
When you’re in control at 80 mph, the engine transmits negligible noise and vibration into the cabin.
On a 200-mile highway journey with the X-Professional, overlaying interstate, native highways, and even rural backroads, the Telluride’s rear maintain swallowed an entire 56-cm highway bike, a stroller, a full crib, suitcases for 2 adults, and the numerous sundries of a weekend away with an toddler. There was even an enormous chunk of usable area left over and not one of the packed cargo blocked my view out the rearview mirror.
Later that weekend, third-row occupants discovered the area acceptable for an hour round-trip jaunt.
And disadvantages?
Cons: Seat Consolation, Off-Highway Credentials, X-Professional Pricing
The Telluride’s entrance seats don’t really feel fairly as supple or supportive as I bear in mind; I arrived dwelling with sore haunches after about 4 hours in heavy visitors; On my earlier 3,000-mile journey, my bum arrived in joyous consolation after 4 full days of driving. Your posterior pleasure might differ, however spend some actual time within the seats before you purchase.
Fortunately, the revised Telluride does have detachable covers within the bumper and a tow hook that’s simply accessible within the trunk, whether or not you spring for X-Professional or not. And perhaps you shouldn’t, except you wish to sink some cash into black wheels and cladding, with out meaningfully growing the SUV’s capabilities.
For everybody else, the baseline Telluride SX and its AWD system will present sufficient functionality, and characterize an enormous price financial savings in opposition to the X-Professional trim. If you happen to reside within the sticks or frequent a ski hill, swap winter tires onto your Telluride SX or decide a competitor’s rig with extra choices for lugging your self out of a snow financial institution.
All that stated, the Telluride continues to be the benchmark for midsize, affordable-but-not-cheap luxurious. Mazda has closed the hole with its CX-70 and -90, however the Kia gives a quieter cabin, higher facilities, laid-back highway manners, and larger general worth.
Most different mainstream Japanese automakers are nonetheless taking part in catch-up on this section Kia pioneered, and that’s the reward for disrupting a market, properly and really.
